1. Field of Invention
The present invention is directed to a method and system for teleconferencing to permit a service provider to provide a service to a user at a remote location.
2. Description of Related Art
The field of providing services from a service provider to users at locations remote from the location of the service provider by way of telecommunications systems such as the internet is a large and growing field. Using telecommunications systems in this manner allows the service provider and the user to interact easily from any distance at almost any time. Very importantly, systems such as these could permit unlimited resources to be applied to the interaction.
An important example of the fields of art where service providers can provide their services to users at remote locations is the health care industry. Recent research has established that the health care industry will achieve approximately $370 billion in online transactions by 2004, according to a report from Forrester Research. This report, entitled “Sizing Health Care E-Commerce,” predicts that the Internet will become the foundation for a new health care industry infrastructure supporting complex, multiparty transactions among consumers, providers, insurers and medical suppliers. With 31% of online consumers already shopping for health care products on the web, online health sales and usage show no sign of slowing. There has already been a well documented growth and proliferation of online websites and medical related portals. The websites WebMD.com and DRKoop.com are examples of only two of the many such websites and portals.
Further, “Cyber Citizen Health”, an ongoing program of research conducted by Cyber Dialogue published a study indicating that 22.3 percent of all adults online rely on the internet for health information. This study also found that 18 percent of the adult studied are inclined to purchase over the counter drugs online. Additionally, 23 percent of the adults studied purchase vitamins and supplements online. Other medical supplies online are purchased by 20 percent of the adults studied.
Similarly, a recent Healtheon Corp Internet survey of the field revealed that 85 percent of physicians are currently using the internet, a marked increase of regular online activity by physicians. This survey chronicled the computer needs and expectations of almost 10,000 physicians. The survey found that more than 63 percent of the physicians surveyed use email daily and that 33 percent have used email to communicate with patients.
Doctor-patient communication via email has jumped 200 percent in a recent twelve month period and nearly 20 percent in a recent three month period. Electronic communications between patients and doctors was statistically insignificant when physicians were first surveyed in 1997.
Many references teach the use of telecommunications to provide services. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,434,611 issued to Tamura (Tamura) on Jul. 18, 1995 teaches the use of a cable system for bidirectional audio/visual communication and transmission of data including data obtained from monitoring equipment. Alternately, a system taught in U.S. Pat. No. 5,441,047 issued to David et al. (David) on Aug. 15, 1995 can be provided with separate transmission of monitored physiological data over a telephone line rather than a cable system.
Another reference teaching remote monitoring of physiological parameters and transmission of physiological data to a medical care worker or expert system at a remote patient location during a remote consultation is U.S. Pat. No. 6,046,761 issued to Echerer on Apr. 4, 2000. Additional references teaching such transmissions include U.S. Pat. No. 6,731,324 issued to Levy on Apr. 4, 2000, U.S. Pat. No. 5,462,051 issued to Oka et. al. (Oka) on Oct. 31, 1995 and U.S. Pat. No. 6,804,656 issued to Rosenfeld et al. (Rosenfeld) on Oct. 12, 2004.
Additionally, access to a database, emergency services, a specialist, or ambulances during remote consultations is taught. See for example, David, U.S. Pat. No. 6,638,218 issued to Bulat on Oct. 28, 2003, U.S. Pat. No. 6,731,324 issued to Levy on May 4, 2004 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,619,991 issued to Sloane (Sloane) on Apr. 15, 1997. Furthermore, Rosenfeld teaches monitoring patient rooms from a remote location having access to a number of different databases for improving the care of the patients.
Additionally, Oka teaches a medical worker transmitting instructions in response to information received from the remote location in such a system. Bulat teaches transmitting a prescription to a pharmacy in response to a consultation in such a telecommunications system. A single channel is used for transmitting the monitored physiological data from the patient to the health care worker in Oka. Additionally, the use of multiple channels for transmitting the parameters is taught. For example, Bulat teaches providing a physician with an audio/visual link to a remote patient terminal by way of a telephone system, as well as links to patient, medication and protocol databases by way of a LAN.
The use of a remote consultation system to perform billing and payment transactions is also known. For example, Bulat teaches collecting credit card and insurance information in a remote consultation system. Echerer teaches providing an itemized bill, forwarding the bill to the patient by facsimile and accepting payment within the remote consultation system by means of a number of health management program cards.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,434,611 issued to Tamura on Jul. 18, 1995 is directed to a home health care system that uses a two way community antenna television network to permit remote communication between doctors and patients. Similarly, U.S. Pat. No. 5,619,991 issued to Sloane on Apr. 15, 1997 is directed to a system that facilitates the delivery of medical services using electronic data transmission. U.S. Pat. No. 5,748,907 issued to Crane on May 5, 1998 discloses an interactive real-time medical management system that can control many aspects of a medical practice.
Moreover, U.S. Pat. No. 5,987,510 issued to Imai, et. al. (Imai) on Nov. 11, 1999 is directed to a packet based telemedicine system for communicating video, voice and medical data between a central monitoring station and a patient monitoring station. The patient monitoring station obtains digital video, voice and medical measurement data from a patient and encapsulates the data in packets and sends the packets over a network to a central monitoring station. Since the information is encapsulated in packets in the Imai system, the information can be sent over multiple types of network architectures or combinations of network architectures. The video, voice and measurement data in the Imai system can be integrated and sent over a single network.
Similarly, David discloses an ambulatory patient health monitoring system for monitoring a remotely located healthcare patient from a central station. The David system includes instruments for measuring parameters of the medical condition of the patient such as heart rate, respiratory rate, pulse and blood pressure. The David system includes a first audio/visual camera disposed at the patient location and a second audio/visual camera disposed at the central station. The audio and video information obtained in this manner is transmitted between the patient's remote location and the central station via a communications network.
However, the David system is not network independent because the system data must be formatted in accordance with a different communications protocol for each of the different networks. Although the system disclosed in the David reference can send information between the healthcare worker and the patient via various types of networks, the information must be reformatted in different ways in order to be correctly used. Another disadvantage of the David system is that the audio and video data are sent over one communication network and the patient data is sent over another communication network.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,924,074 issued to Evans (Evans) on Jul. 13, 1999 discloses streaming compressed digital hypervideo received upon a digital communications network being. The compressed hyper-video is decoded and played in a client computer based video on a web VCR software system. Up to twenty-one past scenes can be displayed as thumbnail images within the system taught by Evans. Hyperlinks within the main video scene, and/or any of the thumbnail images, can be shown as hot spots, with text annotations typically appearing upon a cursor mouse over.
Thus, known systems such as the foregoing have provided valuable techniques for allowing service providers to bring resources to bear on providing their services to users at remote locations. However, they typically bring resources from only one or a few different sources to bear on the interaction at a time. Furthermore, the techniques for accessing the resources are cumbersome, and if the resources are accessed from different sources it is necessary to make multiple cumbersome accesses in order to obtain all of different resources. Such multiple accesses can involve getting through several firewalls and providing multiple sets of user identifications and passwords.
Specifically, there is a long felt need for technologies which facilitate the provision of information and services via a communication network. The telecommunication technologies can which can be facilitated can include real time interactive video or multimedia presentations. In particular, there is a long felt need teleconferencing for systems for providing such information via a plurality of platforms, including a wireless web, such that end users of the system can engage in an interactive exchange of information with service providers.
There is a particular need for systems which facilitate and supervise physician oversight and interaction with the patient. One of the recurring problems in providing health care, including remote health care, is that many patients fail to comply with recommendations made by their physicians. There is thus a long felt need for solutions which maintain closer interaction and monitoring between doctor and patient to permit monitoring of compliance. Additionally, it is important that such a system enable patients to maintain the confidentiality if their patient records. Furthermore, such a system should permit patients to have their risk assessments updated more frequently and provide real time one on one management.
All references cited herein are incorporated herein by reference in their entireties.